The Tampa market is improving slowly but steadily, says Patricia Nooney, senior managing director for institutional services for Florida for CBRE, who oversees brokerage in the Tampa Bay market. With occupancy rates rising, rents should begin to rise in 2013, she says.

Early this year, Parkway Properties paid $46.9 million for The Pointe, a 252,000-sq-ft.

Westshore office building, bringing it to more than 1 million square feet owned or managed in Westshore. “Of all of Tampa’s absorption in 2011, Westshore had the lion’s share,” says Parkway COO Jayson Lipsey.

“One of the notable things in the Tampa market is, if you have a customer who needs 100,000 square feet, there’s not a lot of choices left in the market. You’re going to start to see more people build to suit.”